Ukraine protest

Eugenia Tymoshenko, the daughter of Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine, attended the European Parliament on Tuesday (22 May) to hear MEPs condemn the treatment of her imprisoned mother.

MEPs debated whether or not EU politicians should stay away from those games in the Euro 2012 football championship that are being held in Ukraine. The championships are being jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. A boycott is being urged by some MEPs in the ALDE group, including Dutch MEP Hans van Baalen.

“There’s an astounding number of politicians that are considering boycotting the European championships,” said Green group co-president Rebecca Harms ahead of the debate. “Our recommendation is that we do travel to Ukraine during the championships.”

Eugenia Tymoshenko said after the debate: “It’s not us Ukrainians who called for this protest from the international community.”

Some MEPs, including Zbigniew Ziobro, a Polish member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group, said it was not right to mix sport and politics by punishing the Euro 2012 championship, suggesting that politicians could go, but in a “personal capacity”.

Štefan Füle, European commissioner for enlargement, insisted to the MEPs that there was no boycott. “At the Commission and Council [of Ministers] we have never used the word boycott,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Parliament passed yet another resolution condemning Ukraine for imprisoning political opponents of the regime. It was the fourth such resolution in two years.